Refrigerator Tray Structure for Full Rear Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing refrigerators face difficulties in fully withdrawing trays for easy access to stored items, particularly in the rear area, leading to challenges in storing and retrieving food, especially when items are stacked or of varying lengths, and the current drawer designs can cause damage when trying to pull out upper drawers.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a rear storage member and a front storage member with connection links that allow the front tray to move up and down relative to the rear tray, enabling full withdrawal of the rear tray for better access and storage, along with a sliding cover mechanism for the drawer to prevent interference and damage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the tray is supported by tray supporting units with rollers, then the tray can be slidable back and forth, but the tray cannot be fully pulled out for easy access to rear area items
Solution Approach 1:
The tray is divided into a front tray and a rear tray that can be independently pulled out. The front tray is separated from the rear tray, allowing the rear tray to be fully withdrawn without being constrained by the front tray's support structure. This segmentation enables direct access to items in the rear area while simplifying the support mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The tray supporting units are repositioned to support only the front tray, allowing the rear tray to move freely in the longitudinal direction. By changing the spatial arrangement of the support units from supporting the entire tray assembly to supporting only the front portion, the rear tray gains full withdrawability without requiring complex support mechanisms.
2Ease of operation
If shelves are installed with preset heights and intervals, then storage organization is improved, but long food items cannot be stored without removing existing items and detaching shelves
Solution Approach 1:
The shelf height and interval are made adjustable rather than fixed. The shelf support structure allows the shelf position to be dynamically changed along the longitudinal direction, enabling users to adjust shelf heights to accommodate long food items without detaching or removing other shelves. This dynamic adjustment capability maintains storage organization while providing flexibility for different storage needs.
3Ease of operation
If the cover is upwardly rotatable based on a rotational shaft, then access to the drawer is improved, but the cover and upper drawer may be damaged when pulled out
Solution Approach 1:
The cover is extracted from the rotational shaft mechanism and repositioned to be slidable along the drawer. By removing the rotational shaft and adopting a sliding mechanism, the cover can move parallel to the drawer without interfering with the upper drawer's movement, eliminating the risk of damage while maintaining easy access to the drawer interior.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of the cover rotating upward perpendicular to the drawer front, the cover now slides horizontally along the drawer in the same direction as the drawer's movement. This inverted motion direction allows the cover to be pulled out simultaneously with the drawer without creating interference or damage risks associated with rotational movement.
Data Source
AI summary
A refrigerator includes a refrigerator main body having a cooling chamber, a cooling chamber door configured to open and close the cooling chamber, a rear storage member disposed at a rear area to be drawn out along back and forth directions of the cooling chamber, and a front storage member disposed at the front of the rear storage member and configured to be relatively movable with respect to the rear storage member, whereby goods and/or food stuffs can be easily stored and drawn out.